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BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 
New Series No. 83. University Extension Series No. 18 

The University of Oklahoma 

Quarterly Bulletin 

THE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION 



Consolidation of Rural Schools 

.)!f\-i. ■-. V' t. ^r 



DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC DISCUSSION AND DEBATE 



Norman, Oklahoma 
MARCH 1914 



The University Bulletin, published by the university, is issued 
every three months on the fifteenth as follows: March, June, Septem- 
ber, and December. Entered at the postoffice at Norman, as second 
class matter, under act of July 16, 1894. 

Monograph 



J), of 0. 
FEB 13 19IS 






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FOREWORD 

RESOLVED: That the Consolidation of 
Rural Schools is desirable. 



\ try little has been published on the negative side of this 
question. The material for the negative has been gleaned from 
ronversation, letters, and bulletins advocating the affirmative 
but answering objections to consolidation. 

This bulletin illustrates the practical value of the series of 
bulletins in aid of public discussion and debate now being pub- 
lished by the University of Oklahoma. It would be easy to make 
a bulletin which would encourage public discussion; it might 
do that and present only one side. But a bulletin designed to 
assist debaters must make tw^o sides and make them as nearly 
equal as possible. To do this even inadequately compels the 
fair presentation of both sides. Whatever may be the convic- 
tions of the editors, they must give both sides a chance to win; 
this is sometimes very difficult, but the general reader is assured 
that he is getting the strongest possible presentation of the 
weaker side. 

It is this fact that makes such a bulletin valuable to the can- 
did, earnest investigator. If the bulletin is entirely successful 
it will leave him thinking. Serving the debater also serves the 
man who wishes to know both sides before making up his mind- 

Of course the editors cannot make a side strong which is 
inherently weak . They can only give such arguments as are 
used in the actual discussion of the question. They cannot sift 
the arguments, however absurdly imsound they may be; and 
quoting arguments does not mean that the editors endorse them. 

Thanks are especially due to Principal Ernest F. Ashbaugn, 
Partlesville, Okla., for valuable assistance. 

The bulletin is sent out with the hope that it may assist in 
the diFcussion of this immensely important subject. 

1 



HISTORY 

The District System. 

The district system began in Mass. 125 years ago in a law 
permitting the division of "towns" (townships) into districts 
small enough to facilitate the collection of children for instruc- 
tion. It was intended as a temporary make-shift only, and 
fifty years later, Horace Mann, the grea,test of American edu- 
cational pioneers, declared it to be the "most unfortunate law 
on the subject of common schools ever enacted in Massachu- 
setts." Such has always been the opinion of educational authori- 
ties concerning the district system. 

It developed rather slowly in Mass. In 1800 power was given 
these small districts to levy taxes independently, and in 1827 
they were empowered to elect directors and select teachers. 
It never gave satisfaction and was abolished in 1859 but re- 
enacted. In 1869 it was abolished again but the next year town- 
ships were permitted to reestablish it by a two-thirds vote, and 
45 of them did so. In 1882 the system was finally repealed. It 
died hard in the state where it originated. 

After spreading almost all over the country it has been abol- 
ished in 23 states, and is evidently on the decline in all the 
states. The county system has been adopted in Florida, Georgia, 
Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and 
Maryland. The township system has been adopted in Maine. 
New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Northern 
Michigan and North Dakota. A mixed system prevails in Iowa. 
South Carolina, and Utah. New York has a system of modified 
state control. It will be noted that most of the older states, 
nearly all of those east of the Mississippi, have abandoned the 
district system. 

One of the cliief stays of the district system is the opportu- 
nity it affords for gratifying the American hunger for office 
holding. In Illinois there are about 40,000 school officials to 
manage about 12,000 teachers. This does not include Chicago 
with 6,000 teachers and only 21 officials. The same contrast ap- 
pears everywhere. In ISIissouri there are 28,000 school officials, 
but only 12 in St. Louis; in Michigan 25,000 school officials but 
only 18 in Detroit. When Kentucky abandoned the district sys- 
tem in 1906 she had "8,330 districts and 24,990 school officials, 
with no unity of purpose and no proper conception of the aim and 
scope of popular education." Almost all the progress in rural 

9 



education in recent years has been in the states which have 
discarded the district system. 

Some form of consolidated school has always been in exist- 
ence, and in the older states where they have had the most 
experience they are returning to it. In the northern and east- 
ern states the preference seems to be for the township system, 
but in the south the county system is preferred. The great 
weight of educational opinion favors the southern view. The 
educational achievements of such countries as Germany, France, 
and the Sweden show very clearly that we cannot expect an ef- 
ficient and economical administration of educational matters 
till we place them in the hands of educators who keep up with 
educational philosophy and progress. To place our railways 
under the control of the doctors or the hospitals under the con- 
trol of the railway officials would be no more absurd than plac- 
ing our educational interests under the control of business men. 
This has long been recognized in cities where the school board 
attends to the business end and the superintendent to the edu- 
cational end of the school system. The problem of rural educa- 
tion will not be solved" till the people in the country will learn 
from the cities, the older states, and the nations of Europe; from 
the total educational experience of the human race. 

The Illustrations. 

The pictures are from "Among Country Schools" by. O. J. 
Kern, and are used by the kind permission of Ginn & Co., the 
publishers. 




Fig. 113. Going Home from School in Illinois: Temperature 
Twelve Degrees below Zero 
Figure 113 represents the old way of going to school at its 



best. The children are all healthy and well clad, evidently from 
well-to-do homes. The very poor, the sickly, the ill clad are at 
home; the attendance of such at the old fashioned school was 
very limited. In most districts some of these children would 
have to walk two or three miles. In the picture the road is 
covered with snow; sometimes it is covered with slush or bot- 
tomless mud. 




Fig. 114. The New Way in Ohio 

Figure 114 represents the new way.. Now all the^ children 
go; not only the sickly and ill clad but many who were too old 
to attend the district school. Those who ride the farthest are 
on the road for less time than many who walk to a neighborhood 
school. The hacks are well heated in cold weather and they can 
be closed against wind and rain. Discipline is easy; if a pupil 
does not behave he must walk. 



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Fig. 124. An Old Schoolhouse at Snow Hill, Hancock County, 

Georgia 



Figure 124 is an old fashioned school in Georgia. It was 
more superior to the barns of that day than present day school 
houses are to modern barnsj so it isn't so bad by comparison. 
It was a superior school house in its day. It had a porch and 
was not down on the ground. It was probably used as a church 
also as the remains of a brush arbor are still visible. 




Fig. 127. New Schoolhouse at Snow Hill, Hancock County, Georgia 



After a while this school was consolidated with other neigh- 
boring schools thus secufing money enough to build a better 
house. Figure 127 stands on the same site as Fig 124. Both 
are surrounded by the very same people, and the interval of time 
between them was very short. What makes the difference? In 
union there is strength; financial strength and enterprise and 
enthusiasm. 



AFFIRMATIVE POINTS. 
Digest of Various Articles. 

" Even if roads are muddy which can stand it best, the child 
or the mule?" 

The consolidated school district would have better school of- 
ficers because there would be so many to choose from. 

The same conveyance which carry the children to school in 
the day time may carr}^ their parents to lectures, club meetings, 
etc., at night. 

There is not a single case on the record yet where a consoli- 
dated school after being tried, was ever abandoned for the single 
school. 

More than one-third of the rural schools are too small to be 
efficient. Yet rural schools cost more per capita than town 
schools. 

Suppose a man is satisfied with the single neighborhood 
school; ought he to force it on his neighbor who wishes better 
advantages for his children? 

In the consolidated district petty neighborhood jealousies 
and enmities have far less influence and effect; they are lost 
in the larger numbers. 

It is notable that among all the objections urged against 
consolidated schools there is not one against their increased 
efficiency: that is universally admitted. 

It costs nothing to make the change from the single to the 
consolidated school. The $2,500 given by the state to the con- 
solidated school more than offsets any possible loss. 

Parents in the country are demanding, and ought to demand 
educational advantages equal to those of the towns. But there 
is only one way to get them — absolutely only one — ^and that is 
by consolidation. 

In former days mature men and women could be secured 
to teach rural schools; now they are taught almost entirely by 
young, inexperienced teachers, and they are getting younger all 
the time. 

If children have to start too early in the short, dark days, 
the school sessions can be shortened as they are almost univer- 
sally in cities. With a sufficient number of teachers school can 
stop at 2 p. m. without loss. 

Every kind of school has made tremendous advances in the 
last forty years except the rural school; it has not even held its 
own. and those who advocate the negative arc to blame for it. 



But rural schools have improved where they have been consoli- 
dated. 

Under the consolidated school system children are under the 
care of responsible persons from the time they leave home in 
the morning till they return at night; no quarreling, improper 
language, or improper conduct on .the w^ay to and from school. 
Objectors to consolidation seem to overlook the fact that 
rural life is now^ a failure, that nearly all farmers plan to move 
to town as soon as they are able, that few boys and fewer girls 
remain on the farm of their own choice. Consolidation could 
not possibly do worse than the present system. 

The recitation periods are trebled in the consolidated school; 
music, drawing, agriculture, botany, zoology, domestic science, 
and many other things can be taught successfully which can 
scarcely be taught at all in the single, neighborhood school. 
Chorus singing, debates, libraries and athletics may be provided, 
and contests and other competitive efforts would enliven life 
in a way not now possible. 

The consolidated school gives opportunity for supervision. 
Beginning teachers often fail when teaching alone who prove 
very successful when teaching under skillful and experienced 
supervision. The principle is true in any business; we would 
not think of putting inexperienced workers in charge of expen- 
sive machinery, — it is only the children who are exposed to 
such risks. 

The consolidated school will equalize educational advantages 
of country people. All the children will enjoy the same advan- 
tages which now only a few in each neighborhood can possess. 
Now, only the children of the wealthier farmers have the op- 
portunity of getting anything like an education; and the few 
who do are forever lost to the farm and to rural life and service. 

We cannot compare the cost of the consolidated with the 
single school, for the consolidated school has a more extended 
course of study, — almost always adds a high school. The same 
course of study always costs less under consolidation, but the 
people always wish a better school and they always get it. Of 
course a consolidated school that gives double the advantages 
^ould not cost less than the single schools. 

In the consolidated school, children do not sit all day with 
wet, muddy feet, and damp clothes; they are not compelled to 
stay at home every day it rains or threatens, or in extremely 
cold weather. If a child is taken sick a conveyance is right at 
iiand for taking it home. The consolidated school can afford 



a rural telephone while the single school cannot, and so the 
children are in easy reach of their parents all day. 

It is admitted that the transportation problem is the greatest 
difficulty. But every other consideration is so greatly in favor 
of the consolidated school that even if the transportation prob- 
lem could not be satisfactorily solved at present it would be 
entirely overbalanced by the favorable considerations. There 
are difficulties and drawbacks to our present system, and we get 
far less results. 

Experience proves that with a consolidatecf school the at- 
tendance is a larger proportion of the enumeration; the attend- 
ance of the enrolled pupils is much more regular; and tardiness 
is almost unknown. Pupils can be better classified and graded; 
instead of often having but one or two in a class the classes 
are large enough to create interest and enthusiasm; pupils can 
be classed where they belong instead of being forced into clas- 
ses by the limits of the teacher's time. 

The consolidated school is the only possible way to secure 
the rural high school, one of the most needed and indispensable 
educational instrumentalities that can be imagined. This would 
end the necessitj^ of sending children away from home at the 
most critical time in life. Under present conditions, children 
must live away from home almost all their youth, or be deprived 
of the advantages of higher education. The consolidated school 
affords even better educational advantages at home than the 
towns can offer. 

Prof. James says that the country boy has an immense ad- 
vantage of his city cousin because he handles material things 
at first hand instead of only seeing pictures of them. His per- 
ceptions are more vivid and so his power of perception is great- 
er and also all the other powers which depend upon or are close- 
ly connected with perception. The country boy almost holds 
his own in spite of his handicap of poor schools. The consoli- 
dated school w(n]ld make the country rather than the city the 
best place to educate children. 

It is now universally conceded that rural schools should be 
of a different type from that which prevails in the city. The 
nearness of the rural school to Nature should be utilized, and it 
would give a higher typQ of education better adapted to country 
life and needs. The fact that under present defective conditions 
country schools should anything like hold their own shows that 
if they had a fair chance it would never be necessary for any 

8 



rariiier to rr.ove to town or send his children there for the sake 
of educational advantages. 

It is sometimes argued that the consolidated school will fol- 
low the city high school; the fact is consolidation is the only 
possible way to prevent the rural school from following the 
type of the town school. This is in fact one of the strongest 
arguments in favor of the consolidated school; it will enable 
the rural school to go its own way independently, to offer what 
its pupils need, and to secure greater efficiency than tlie town 
schools have ever been able to achieve. Consolidated schools 
would soon develop the teachers, methods, administration to 
meet their peculiar needs; and it is certain that they can never 
be developed in any other way. 

Country boys and girls need a wider social acquaintance and 
opportunity than is now possible. The consolidated school will 
prevent "greenness" and by ir, -reasing the development of per- 
sonality immensely increase *ho possibilities of fame and use- 
fulness. Girls even more th-m boys need the opportunites of a 
wider acquaintance than is possible in the small neighborhood. 
The highest joys of life are social joys, and the highest powers 
in life are the abilities to influence our fellowmen; and the con- 
solidated school, more than anything else wliirli has been pro- 
posed, will minister to these highest needs an.' ; > Mli.iiit ies -•'' 
human life. 

The consolidated school means rural life at its ' -. If ih'^ 
distances to be traveled are great, there is tiio more i H;-' en 1 
of the journey. The distances are there anyhow. X.>\v. 'Aiosr 
distances defeat all efficient cooperation; without the consolida-- 
ed school the country will soon be occupied by renters who wil! 
have no interest in preserving the soil or improving either the 
farms or social life, and will flock to the cities as soon as they 
can get a precarious foothold there. The difficulties and draw- 
backs of consolidating schools are far less than those of not 
consolidating. 

The greatest difficulty of farmers is securing necessary co- 
operation. Isolation not only renders it difficult, but farmers d^* 
not get accustomed to it. In the neighborhood school there ..re 
hardly boys enough to play "cat;" in the consolidated '^ !v,..>.; 
they can play all the great games, and have contests with other 
schools in debate, oratory, athletics, and in all these they learn 
to cooperate, and will contiune to do so when they are men. The 
chief difficulty in securing agricultural credit banks or marketing 
organizations or political rights is that farmers cannot cooperate. 



The consolidated school is worth far more than it will cost for 
the aid it will give to farmers' cooperation. 

The consolidated school will go a long way towards the solu- 
tion of the problem, "How to keep the boys on the farm." It 
will bring to life on the farm the culture and refinement of the 
city, what the farm boy and the ambitious farmer goes to the 
city to secure, thus severing the ties which bind them to the 
farm. The consolidated school becomes the social and intellec- 
tual center of the community. With its library and reading room 
its music, its debating clubs and literary societies "for young and 
old, its sports and games and athletic contests, our boys will 
hesitate to leave such surroundings for the uncertainties of city 
life. And even if some do strive to enter the larger field of pro- 
fessional life in the city he will do so with far better preparation 
for it and greater chances of success. 

The chief foe of the farmer and of country life is isolation; 
all recognize this. It prevents cooperation in production and 
marketing and makes him the prey of those who can combine 
or cooperate. Very few large enterprises are within reach of 
the individual farmers, their ineans are far too limited; so when 
combination is impossible any considerable achievement is also 
impossible. The consolidated school is easily the most prac- 
ticable kind of rural cooperation. If provision is made to bring 
the children together all the rest can follow. The children will 
grow up in a larger community and so will have greater social 
advantages. There will be wider choice in marriage, and in 
friendships, and so the principle of selection will have far more 
scope. There would be more resources, more capital, more 
helpers, more enthusiasm, and so more achievement. 

Most country boys cannot attend school in town at all, and 
of those who do very few can attend the entire school year. A 
country boy starts to school in the fall and goes till March, 
then he must stop for farm work. Next fall he starts again and 
of course can't be promoted, so he goes over the same work 
again, and again stops schools in the spring. He repeats this for a 
few years and then gives up all hope of an education. In the con- 
solidated school there are so many boys of that kind that it is 
easy to provide special classes for them which run through the 
winter only. At present it is impossible for any boy to get an edu- 
cation unless he can attend school at least 8 months in a year, 
a thing which thousands of them are unable to do. Some form 
of consolidated school is the only possible remedy; those who 
oppose consolidation are robbing such boys of an education. 

iO 



Why should a neighborhood be limited to 3 or 4 miles square 
instead of six miles square? The larger the neighborhood the 
iewer petty jealousies, bickerings, antagonisms, the gossip, 
and narrow prejudices there are. Both old and young need the 
larger neighborhood. Social efforts may fail in small communities 
while completely successful in large ones. The division of 
Christians into a great many different sects does little harm in 
-cities, but often completely prevents successful Christian work 
in the country. The only reason why social, religious, and edu- 
cational advantages are superior in the city is because there are 
more people to cooperate. In the country neighborhood there 
are not enough people to do things. Nothing is possible but 
the most primitive and elementary enterprises. Consolidation 
is a move in the right direction, and will help solve all the prob- 
lems of rural life. 

Without the consolidated school there is ilo hope of any im- 
provement in rural conditions. In its wake follow all the goods 
that result from the cooperation of human beings, the massing 
of effort, interest, and intelligence. Without the consolidated 
school the present condition must continue; the children will 
continue leaving the farm as soon as they can get away from it; 
the farmers themselves leaving it as soon as they are able to 
rent their farms and live in town. The}'- will continue to be 
fleeced by every other occupation and business because they 
have no opportunity to get together and to cooperate. Where 
farms are small as they are in Europe, farmers are not sp much 
separated, but here, where farms are large, farmers are neces- 
sarily scattered. The consolidated school offers the only prac- 
ticable method yet suggested of bringing farmers together in 
a cooperative way. 

The opponents of consolidated schools suggest nothing else 
practicable. The Union Graded School is excellent in theory but 
it involves keeping up both the neighborhood school and the cen- 
tral school. There will have to be more wealth and more inter- 
est in education before that will be possible. Often, too, the 
younger children need the company of the older for safet}^ and 
assistance. The plan for a superintendent in charge of three or 
four rural schools has good points but involves too much ex- 
pense. No competent superintendent would take such a super- 
intendency with all the traveling in all weather, without more 
salary than the towns pay; so the towns would get all the best 
superintendents and the country would not get superintendents 
■ capable of making the plan a success. And, then, the expense 

11 



for superintendence would be added to the present expense, in 
many cases nearly or quite doubling it. 

Another argument of great practical force in Oklahoma 
is the fact that state gives aid to communities establishing con- 
solidated schools. This state aid answers the objection of the 
cost of consolidated schools effectually and gives sufficient aid 
to communities consolidating their schools to enable them to- 
get thoroly equipped buildings at less expense than they can 
build cheese boxes for the neighborhood schools. This state aid 
comes from the national gift to the state as a building fund 
and so does not increase state taxes. But it does not matter for 
our present discussion where the aid comes from; it completely 
answers the objection that consolidation costs too much. It 
would be easy to sell most of the present school houses for 
barns, — sometimes for dwellings, — so that no communities in 
Oklahoma need hesitate to consolidate on account of the expense. 

Suppose that after five schools had been consolidated and 
were in good running order, a proposal were made to disor- 
ganize it and return to the old way, what arguments could be 
urged in favor of doing so? To build and keep up five houses 
instead of one? To shorten the recitation periods from thirty 
and forty minutes to ten? To make the children, even the small- 
est, walk through the mud and slush for an average of two miles 
or stay at home? To expose the smaller children to the* un- 
restrained bully on the way to and from school? To give up 
the high school and surrender half the educational advantages? 
To drive many of the best farmers to the towns to educate their 
children? And all for what? To get the most inefficient schools 
in the civilized world; to enable a few mossbacks, whose chief 
interest in school matters is to keep taxes down, to dominate 
more effectually a small district. 

The fact is, no argument could be made at all. 

Consolidated schools are sometimes advocated on the ground 
of economy. This is a very strong point in their favor. There is 
an enormous waste in having five teachers teaching five separate 
reading classes, when one could do it better if the classes were 
combined. The great advantage of consolidated schools is that 
they permit the study of more subjects and lengthen the reci- 
tation periods, so securing greater efficiency and adaptedness. 
At present we do not have such a thing as a real rural school; 
only cheap copies of town schools ai;e possible, or ever will be 
possible without enlarging the rural school and increasing its 
constituency sufficiently to afford the efficiency and adpated- 

12 



ness to rural life so sadly needed. The economy argument is 
not that taxes would be made less by consolidation but that the 
people would get so much more for the taxes paid. Consolida- 
tion would furnish the same advantages we now have for a 
great deal less than they are now costing, but the great argu- 
ment is that the expenditures would give far more than we are 
now getting. 

The greatly increased social opportunity which must result 
from the consolidated school will do more than anything else 
has ever done to check the movement of the country towards 
the town; for young people of strength and ambition would 
not leave the independence and wholesomeness of the country 
to make their living by their wits in the tow^n if the country 
offered equal social advantages. So the consolidated school is 
worth all it costs for its indirect value in the enrichment and im- 
provement of social life in the country. 

The consolidated school can have its winter lecture courses, 
entertainments, concerts, debating societies, literary societies, 
mothers' clubs, farmers' clubs, business organizations for co- 
operation in marketing and buying, and everything which tends 
to social improvement and financial advancement. In the whole 
range of possibilities for rural life there is nothing to compare 
with the consolidated school; it is worth far more than it costs 
for its indirect advantages aside from the fact that it offers the 
only possible opportunity for adequate educational advantages. 
The cost of transportation is not nearly as great as is 
usually expected. The transportation to fourteen schools in La 
Grange Co. Indiana cost $441.20 per year for each school. For 
the whole state of Indiana the cost of transportation averaged 
only $32 a month for each wagon. In Trumbull Co. Ohio it was 
$31 a month. In Champaign Co. 111., it was $33, and in Oklaho- 
ma $35 to $42. In nearly every case an older student is glad to 
drive a team and take care of it to help work his way in school. 
His tuition, board, and a little money for books and clothes of- 
fer him a better opportunity than he can get in any town. 

The transportation of pupils is usually let to the lowest re- 
sponsible bidder. Most farmers have teams idle most of the 
winter when transportation is most difficult; they raise their 
own feed and can keep a team more cheaply than a livery stable. 
Hacks with soapstone heaters cost from $100 to $200 according 
to size and style. If the roads are bad farmers suffer no more 
in transporting children than anything else. In the whole state 
of Indiana the longest ride is about five miles, and 60 per cent. 

13 



ride less than three miles. Where there is a disposition to co- 
operate the transportation problem is easil}^ solved, and the chil- 
dren enjoy riding infinitely more than the long, lonely walks. 

But the ideal country school is absolutely impossible under 
present conditions and methods. The curriculum of the country 
schools is now so crowded that sometimes the teacher can get 
only an average of 10 minutes to a class, — a period absurdly in- 
adequate. To talk of adding any more subjects would be sheer 
insanity. But the consolidated school permits the uniting of 
classes, so that we could greatly lengthen recitations and still 
have abundant time for such new subjects as may be needed. 
There can be ample time for agriculture, botany, agronomy, 
horticulture, for farm machinery including labor saving devices 
for the home, and for all that is needed to make rural education 
vital, interesting, and practical. 

But such an ideal is utterly out of the question with our 
present system. This is too evident to need discussion. Botany 
chemistry, physics cannot be taught without a high school, 
without laboratories and apparatus, — things which are out of 
the question in the ordinary single school. These things require 
buildings, teachers, and equipment which cost far more money 
than any neighborhood could afford; and even if they could be 
afforded there would not be enough pupils to utili.'^c them. We 
can never have the subjects taught in rural schools which need 
to be and ought to be taught without schools equipped for 
teaching them: and that means some form of consolidated 
school. 

The rural school today is but little in advance of the rural 
school of 50 years ago. Wliile the old fashioned wooden mould- 
board has given way to the modern sulky, the sickle is replaced 
by the self-binder, the flail and winnowing-sheet have yielded 
to the separator driven by the traction engine; while the har- 
row, the cultivator, the silo, and all the improvements in agri- 
cultural machinery have revolutionized farming, the rural school 
persists in its native inefficiency and simplicity. The farmer's 
stock, his vegetables, his grains have been improved almost 
beyond belief; the modern barn cannot be compared with the 
old log stable; the farmer lives in a better house, furnishings to 
match; everything has progressed more than the school. 

Why is this? People are not indifferent to education: the 
need for it is far greater than it ever was. The chief troubles 
are that there are not enough of people in the present district 
to sui)port an efficient school, awd if tlierc were, there arc not 

II 



enough children to make one. The single, neighborhood school 
has about reached its limits; it is not possible for it to make 
any considerable progress. The situation is inexorable. There 
is not money enough to employ more teachers, and if there 
were, there would not be room enough for them to teach in, 
and if there were rooms enough there would not be children 
enough to fill them. 

The only remedy then is some kind of consolidation. By 
saving the waste of duplicating plants, by combining classes it 
will be easy to secure the necessary funds for buildings, teach- 
ers, equipments, longer terms and the larger district will fur- 
nish adaquate numbers of children. 

The only argument against consolidation which has any 
validity whatever is the transportation problem, and this is 
equally valid against every other effort at social progress in 
the country. It is not a problem created by the consolidated 
school at all. It operates just as effectually against church, 
Sunday schools, lectures, concerts, entertainments, clubs, and 
every form of social life in the country. It is equally true that 
solving this problem for the consolidated school solves it for 
all other purposes. It is the problem of isolation in country 
life, and the consolidated school can do more to help solve 
it than anything else which has yet been suggested. 

As roads are improved, bridges built, and vehicles are per- 
fected this difficulty will diminish. With good roads motor 
buses are now available which would carry the pupils to school 
in a few minutes. Few individuals could afford them of course, 
but by combining they become an economy. All the objections 
urged on this ground are only temporary, and will gradually 
disappear with progress; and not only that, but they will con- 
tribute largely to bring about the progress. When the problem 
of transportation is solved for the school it is solved for all 
other purposes at the same time. 

The old notion that farmers should furnish roads for the 
public to use is now thoroughly exploded. The towns are as 
much interested in good roads as the country is, and county, 
state, and even nation are taking a hand in securing them. Bad 
roads are the heaviest tax the farmer pays, and is a burden 
which oppresses every interest which depends upon the farmer's 
prosperity. So the nation, state, and county ought to bear the 
chief expense of building roads; to require the farmer to do it 
is a& unjust as it is futile. 

But with' the establishment of good roads the chief difficulty 

15 



of consolidated schools disappears, and nothing can expedite 
its disappearance more than efforts to consolidate the schools. 
.And just so far as consolidation of schools is bound up with 
the better roads problem the argument for it is strengthened 
instead of weakened. Anything which increases the demand 
for better roads will help bring them. With good roads a 
couple of motor buses could pass every house in an average 
townsJ?ip in less than an hour; and \vith three or four buses 
private conveyances would no longer be economical. 

An Example of Consolidation 

Let us consider an example. Here are five schools in a 
township 6 miles square. Each has an enrollment of 10 to 20 
pupils. These are distributed as follows: 

School 12 3 4 5 Total 



First Grade 


2 


3 


4 


3 


3 


15 


Second Grade 


3 


4 


5 


3 


2 


17 


Third Grade 


2 


4 


3 


2 


4 


15 


Fourth Grade 


3 


4 


4 


3 


2 


16 


Fifth Grade 


4 


3 


2 


1 


3 


13 


Sixth Grade 


2 





3 


2 


1 


8 


Seventh Grade 





2 


1 


2 


2 


7 



Eighth Grade 2 11 4 

18 20 22 17 18 95 

The classes are all small. In all the schools combined there 
are only 17 pupils in the Second Grade. One teacher could 
teach them all with much greater interest and results than five 
teachers with the five separate little classes. To hire five teach- 
ers to teach those 17 pupils is a dead waste of four teachers. 
The same is true of any other grade. With five separate 
schools each class can receive only about 10 minutes, when 
combined they can receive whatever time they need. The com- 
bined class is not only cheaper but far more efficient, for in the 
five separate schools no teacher can give more than one-fourth 
as much time to each recitation as it needs. 

With the five separate schools many pupils have to walk 
two or three miles over muddy roads and without supervision. 
It is well kno'vn that most of the harm that comes to children 
attending school is in coming and going. Tn the five separate 
schools there is no possibility of teaching more than the bare 
rudiments, and those very ineffectively. With these schools 



■combined five teachers would not be needed to teach every 
subject adequately and add several more subjects. 

But better school service is not all the gain. With a con- 
solidated school it w^ould be easy to have a winter's lecture 
course with entertainments and concerts; there could be a cir- 
culating library and reading room; there could be clubs of 
various kinds; it would aid cooperation among farmers by giv- 
ing opportunities for meetings, because the same conveyances 
which gather the children to the school could be used by the 
older people at other times. 

But even this would not be the greatest good. The greater 
numbers in the school would enable the farmers to get the kind 
of education they need instead of being compelled to follow 
the models set up by the town schools. The farmers' children 
could be educated so that they could hold their own against all 
competition. It would make country life more wholesome and 
interesting than town life and the boys and girls would stay 
on the farm because it paid to stay there, — the only thing that 
will ever stop the drift to the cities. 

In fact, the consolidated school will bring to rural communi- 
ties every blessing and privilege which results from numbers, 
cooperation, and organization. It would bring together enough 
people to do things without making the burden unbearable. 
More things could be done because there would be more people 
to do them and more resources to do wnth. 

It must be conceded by all that Germany has proved by 
actual results the superiority of her educational system. Her 
wonderful strides in manufacturing and commerce and their 
connection with her schools leave no room for doubt of their 
practical efficiency. She is teaching more practical knowledge 
than any other nation; she is giving her youth the knowledge 
that they will need in their life struggle. Any knowledge has 
some value, and any knowledge can be made the means of 
mental development; but the modern world is waking up to the 
fact that some knowledge is of vastly more value than other 
knowledge. 

We have been believing that a small amount of knowledge, 
■most of it musty and out of touch with actual life, could educate 
rail children alike. We have been acting on the assumption that 
all varieties of human talents, capacities and faculties could be 
adequately developed in the s ij. e classes, by the same teachers, 
and with the same subjects. Germany is taking the lead among 
modern nations in showing the absurdity of all this: and nations 

17 



who expect to hold their own in the modern world must heed 
the lessons she is giving. 

But the resources of the country school are utterly insuf- 
ficient to teach even the limited range of knowledge of our 
present system. Any attempt to teach children what they real- 
ly need to know is futile if not preposterous. When one teacher 
tries to teach seven or eight grades he cannot average ten min- 
utes to a class. In a graded school the same classes would 
have from 30 to 50 minutes for a recitation. Of course it can- 
not be done, and in consequence thousands of rural families 
are being driven to the towns to educate their children. 

Then our present system cuts down wages so that the teach- 
er's profession cannot compete with others; and so our rural 
teachers are either beginners, or unable to do anything else, 
or, are teaching temporarily till they can do better. While 
school directors ignore the necessary preparation of teachers 
and employ them on account of their looks rather than for their 
education or success in teaching, and while the school teacher 
must compete with the beginners in all occupations and the fail- 
ures in all trades and professions there is little hope for im- 
provement. 

Teachers cannot afford to meet even the present demands 
for preparation. When a person can prepare himself for other 
employments or professions with from one-half to one-tenth of 
what it would cost to properly prepare for teaching, and then 
can get a much larger salary with 1)etter chance of promotion, 
why should any one fit himself to be a rural teacher? As a mat- 
ter of fact they don't. The best rural teachers are either look- 
ing towards other occupations or for positions in town or city 
schools where there are better wages and opportunities. 

But it is perfectly evident that small rural schools will never 
be able to pay teachers sufficient to have them well prepared 
to teach what is needed in rural schools. In very many com- 
munities most of the farms are mortgaged and few farmers 
are making money. Every few years there is a drought, and 
sometimes several in succession. Our farms in Oklahoma are 
all comparatively new and very few are yet equipped with need- 
ed buildings and machinery. Under such conditions it is idle 
to talk about raising money enough by taxation to furnish the 
education which is needed in the country. We must find a 
cheaper way, and have more efficient management. 

It is perfectly evident that the country can never compete 
with the town under present conditions. The evident reason is 

18 



that in the towns so many people are united in the support of 
one school that they can get the best that money can procure 
and yet the burden on the individual be less than it is in the 
country. The problem of rural education, then, is plainly and 
simply the problem of getting enough people associated togeth- 
er in the support of one school so that the tax burden will not 
be too much increased. This is exactly w^hat is accomplished 
by the consolidated school. It can never cost as much to trans- 
port the children to a central school as it does to maintain five 
or six separate little schools; and the more expensive these 
separate schools the greater the gain from their consolidation. 
What the best and wisest people wish for their children should 
be provided for all. 

Saving from Consolidation in La Grange County, Ind. 

Schools abandoned, 38. Teachers in Consolidated schools, 
15. Saving in teachers, 23. Saving in salaries, $10,651.60. Sav- 
ing in fuel and repairs, $2,260. Total saving, $12,911.60. Loss: 
Number of hacks, 29. Number of children conveyed, 428. Total 
cost of transportation for year $6,176.86. 

Net gain from consolidation, $6,734.74 (besides the improve- 
ment in the teaching, etc). 

Says Prof. Foght, "Of a truth the farm youth have not had 
a square deal. And the fundamental cause of it all is that our 
rural population does not spend its school money wisely in the 
education of their boys and girls. Much of what is invested in 
rural education is spent to poor advantage in feeble, poorly in- 
structed schools which could just as well be abandoned or con- 
solidated." 
Questions Submitted to Patrons of Consolidated Schools in Ohia 

"Does your child stand and wait for the wagon?" Every re- 
ply so far is, "No." 

**Does your child show increased interest?" Ninety percent 
say, "Yes;" ten percent say. "No." 

"Does your child attend school more regularl}^?" Eighty 
percent answer. "Yes." Twenty percent, "See no difference." 

"Do your teachers show increased interest?" Ninety-five per- 
cent answer, "Yes;" five percent answ^er either, "No." or "Notice 
no difference." 

"If it takes more time, is it compensated for by better work?'* 
Eighty-five percent answer, "Yes;" fifteen percent, "Can't say,*' 
or "No." 

"What effect has the consolidated school on the social antf 
educational interests of the township?" Most who have answer- 

19 



ed said, "There has been a great improvement." One replied, 
"In the beginning it stirred up a great deal of trouble, but every- 
thing is going along nicely now." A few replied, "No improve- 
ment; has not been established long enough to tell what it will 
do." 



NEGATIVE POINTS. 
Digest of Various Articles. 

Roads are sometimes impassible for days and even weeks, 
and it is too far to walk to a consolidated school. Children can 
always get to the neighborhood school. 

It is ancient and universally accepted wisdom that, "A bird 
in the hand is worth two in the bush." On that principle a 
poor school near home is worth more than a good school at 
a distance. 

In similar way the weaker portions of a proposed consolidat- 
ed district, the most sparsely settled portions would be, under 
consolidation, completely outvoted by the more thickly set- 
tled portions. To ask such portions to consolidate is like ask- 
ing them to submit to annihilation. 

Consolidation is a costly step; and after it is once taken it is 
not easy to retrace. It matters not how tired people may be- 
come of it or how dissatisfied they must stick to it when once 
the die is cast. Such facts constitute a practical objection which 
cannot safely be ignored. 

People get attached to the neighborhood school; it has as- 
sociations and memories cluster around it. It so holds the af- 
fections of the people of the vicinity that they hate to give it 
up. It is vain to call it mere sentiment. It is closely akin "to 
patriotism and love of home, and is too strong to be easily 
broken. 

It is all very well to talk about the consolidated school adding 
a high school, and teahing a great many subjects not usually 
taught in neighborhood schools, but we must cut the garment 
according to the cloth. The people in the country cannot af- 
ford such things. They can bond themselves, but bonds have 
to be paid sometime and interest besides. 

The more prominent people in any community very naturally 
dislike to surrender the control of the education of their child- 
ren and go into a large district where their voice can have but 
little influence. They naturally hesitate to surrender the control 

20 



of their school to others. This is not only human nature but 
it is reasonable and justifiable. 

Many farmers have paid more for a farm because it was 
near a school house. If the school is moved he suffers a double 
wrong; he not only loses what he paid for location, but his prop- 
erty is further depreciated by being a still greater distance from 
the consolidated school; these differences it is impossible to 
equalize. 

Country people are exceedingly conservative, the consolidat- 
ed school is a radical proposal. Even if it were theoretically 
correct a radical policy will not work with conservative people. 
You have to change the people first. But the affirmative of 
this question are getting the cart before the horse. It is evident 
that right now, under the present conditions the negative are 
right. 

Children attending the district school dress very much as 
they do at home; but in the consolidated school they would 
have to dress in their Sunday-go-to-meeting best. This must 
be added to the expense of the consolidation plan. Then the 
poorer children would suffer in comparison with those whose 
parents are richer, and there would be many a heartburning 
which is now unknown. 

Riding to school in a wagon from four^ to six miles for eight 
years is no small undertaking; it would grow very monotonous 
in less time than that. The drivers in such cases ought to be 
as well educated and as good disciplinarians as the teachers. A 
good driver might be able to manage a mule team satisfactori- 
ly, but a wagon load of boys and girls is a different proposition. 

Another fact which militates against the consolidated school 
is the evil influence of bad pupils. With the separate schools 
that influence is limited to the little neighborhood school where 
they are well known and their influence is small. But in the 
consolidation of sjx schools there would be the aggregation of 
all the bad and unruly pupils of all, and the evil influence would 
be greatly multiplied. 

The ideal of the consolidated school is the town school. But 
the town- schools are not altogether successful in the towns, and 
are not at all adapted to the country. No greater calamity could 
happen to rural education than to have its schools modeled after 
town schools. It would inevitably result in wasting the educa- 
tional resources of the country children, their time and their op- 
portunity, and would not fit them for country life. 

Possibly when automobiles are sold at the price of a bus and 

21 



team, or when the Single Tax or something else runs street 
cars on every county road, possibly then we might talk about 
consolidating our schools. But we are not discussing this sub- 
ject for 1940 but for 1914. The negative claim that under con- 
ditions now existing consolidation will in most cases be ineffi- 
cient and impractical and is therefore inexpedient and unwise. 

Hacks wear out and break down, and they do not always 
wait till Saturdays to do it. They are sure to do their break- 
ing down while on the road full of children, and some of them 
four or five miles from home. Parents may well hesitate to as- 
sume the risks involved in the scheme of transporting their 
children so far. These dangers and drawbacks are not fanciful: 
they are as real as anything can be ,and it is impossible to re- 
move them. 

Sometimes teams run away, — they certainly have been known 
to. And in these days when an automobile thinks it has the 
right of wa}^ teams are often terrified. A run-away with twenty 
children in the hack is not to be regarded carelessly, or lightly. 
Sometimes hacks are overturned, sometimes axles or wheels 
break suddenly, and with only a school boy for driver there 
are too many lives endangered. The transportation problem 
is not practicable. 

After all that can he said for combining children into large 
classes, the fact remains that each pupil must learn for himself. 
— must learn alone. Concert exercises and such may make an 
interesting exhibition, but each pupil must comprehend for him- 
self. It is the common testimony of educators that country 
children excel all others in the higher schools, except possibly 
in mere memorizing. Most of this advantage, if not all, will 
be lost in the consolidated school. 

The difficulties inherent in the transportation system are so 
great that many parents prefer to take their own children to 
school in their own conveyances. For this, however, they 
should in most cases l)e allowed pay, but where the hack 
passes a house the district could not afford to pay much if any- 
thing, and so there would be constant occasion for disagreement 
and dispute. Where parents undertake to deliver their own 
children there is a very strong temptation to keep them at 
home when the teams are busy with farm work. 

The directors of rural schools must awake to the fact that 
they must compete with town schools for teachers. Tt is ob- 
vious that the towns arc continually drawing teachers from the 
country. Tt is not only the salary that does it but other things 

22 



which could be easily remedied. The tendency in towns is to 
keep teachers even if they are not perfect. They have learned 
that the knowledge of the children and of the community which 
a teacher gets is a real asset which they cannot afford to throw 
away. A faithful teacher is reasonably sure of continuous em- 
ployment. This is necessary in any business and is especially 
necessary in teaching. 

Country schools imitate the town schools far too much al- 
ready, and often the chief motive for consolidation is to imi- 
tate them more closely. The country school has easy access to 
nature, — to the vegetable, animal, and mineral kingdoms. Yet 
their courses of study are usually modeled after city schools 
where the riches of plants, flowers, insects, and animals are in- 
accessible. The consolidated school would be still more like 
the city school. A far more vital and essential education is pos- 
sible in the country than in the town, and the advantage should 
not be surrendered. 

It is impossible for the wagon to call at every house. Child- 
ren who live off the main road must walk to the nearest main 
road and wait till the hack comes. If it is raining or snowing, 
or is bitter cold this is out of the question. If on the other 
hand children are late in getting there the hack must wait. To 
build little houses or sheds to wait in would not only be expen- 
sive but could not protect from cold. Time-pieces necessarily 
vary in the country, and the condition of roads varies so much 
that exact fneeting is impossible. The scheme will not be prac- 
ticable in very many cases. 

Since there would be more older pupils in the consolidated 
school there would be far more "love affairs," and they would 
be far more difficult to manage. The long rides nights and 
mornings would give such opportunities for "sparking" and 
"spooning" as are not known now. This is an increasingly dif- 
ficult problem everywhere; few problems perplex parents and 
teachers more. It would be hard to invent an institution bet- 
ter adapted to make the problem insoluble than the consolidat- 
ed school. Children at the age when that disease makes its 
appearance are away from home almost all the time. 

There is no money expended for any purpose which brings 
anything like such returns as what we pay for schools. — the 
school tax. It gives our children education which is worth far 
more to them than fortunes. It marks the difference between 
a progressive, intelligent community and the backwoods. The 
tax is insignificant compared with the increased earning capa- 

23 



city which results from it. Uneducated children must inevit- 
ably take the lowest places when they are grown; they do do 
it. nothing can prevent it. The negative does not oppose con- 
solidation because it is expensive, but because it is an imprac- 
tical, chimerical scheme. 

In the country the very opposite policy prevails. Many dis- 
tricts refuse to equip a school so that a teacher has a fair chance 
of accomplishing" anything and then blame the teacher for fail- 
ure. Low^ pa}^ and uncertain employment will not draw the best 
talent in any occupation on earth. The most humiliating ex- 
periences a human being ever has in this world are in hunting a 
school. The discourtesies^ the haggling over wages, the sneers 
and criticisms which some directors think are smart would not 
be endured in any other occupation. Making teachers servile, 
destroying their self-respect is no way to get good teachers, 
yet this is a very common practice. 

In most neighborhoods the movement for consolidated 
sc!iOols is premature even if it were best. Most school districts 
still owe part or all of the -bonds issued to build their present 
school houses. To tear down the houses they have and saddle 
a new debt on the people for a consolidated school house is out 
of the question . And furthermore, while they are in debt on 
the old school house they could not afford to build as good a 
building for the consolidated school as they need to make it 
effective. The possibility of better buildings is one of the chief 
arguments for consolidation; where a better building is not 
possible the argument fails. 

An Oklahoma school director said a year or two ago: "I 
don't keer ennything fer yer dieplomers, an' yer rekkymenda- 
tions. T kin size up teachers in a half a minit by jis lookin' at 
'em." When the people elect such directors what is the use of 
teachers spending years in expensive preparation? It is notori- 
ous that very many school directors judge a teacher far more 
by their looks than by their attainments or qualifications. So 
those who are not blest by good looks or cannot put them on 
are at a hopeless disadvantage. Yet none of the world's great- 
est teachers have been good looking. If Pestalozzi were alive 
it is very doubtful if he could get a position in one school out 
of a hundred in Oklahoma or any other state. Neither could 
Socrates or Froebel. 

The average farmer may not be up on the latest frills in 
education, but he knows something about transportation in 
wacrons or hacks: and he know; that in very many cases it is 

24 



utterly impracticable. In muddy lanes the children would have 
to get out and walk when the hack sticks in the mud. Some 
days they could not drive half as fast as other days, so it would 
be hard to have a regular time schedule. At every house the 
hack would have to stop for the children to get their wraps on 
and receive the finishing touches from their mothers. Some- 
times the hack would have to go and leave children and theni 
there would be a row, and the driver might lose his job. 

We have become accustomed in this country to the Ameri- 
can idea of liberty and local self-government. The more im- 
portant a thing is to us the less we are willing to give up all 
control of it. Even if others might control it to better results 
we are still loth to give it up, or to be convinced that it is best 
to do so. Because a plan works well in Germany where they 
are accustomed to a centralized government is no assurance 
that it would work here. The farm communities of Germany 
are an inheritance from the troubled past when farmers had to 
live in groups or villages for mutual protection. They are not 
scattered as our farmers are. 

The location of a consolidated school brings up tnany seri- 
ous problems. Land near the school will greatly appreciate in 
value, while land which is remote from the school will be de- 
preciated in value. This will be show^n by the rental value of 
the farms. In other words, the action of the community in lo- 
cating the school makes a present of great values to those who 
live near, and robs those remote of equally great values. There 
is no way under present laws and conditions to prevent this 
gross injustice. Those who live near the center can afford to 
bribe voters to secure the location, while those remote can af- 
ford to spend money to prevent the loss which the consolidation 
would occasion. 

If we eliminate all schools where consolidation would com- 
pel the tax-payers to carry a double burden we should have so 
few left that there would be but little to discuss. Consolidation 
is not practicable in by far the greater number of schools. Even 
where bonds have been paid off the people would want a few 
years rest before going in debt again. Then we have had sev- 
eral years of poor crops, times are hard, and thousands of peo- 
ple are having a hard time to make ends meet. Everywhere 
we hear the complaint of high taxes, and it is almost impossible 
to get enough money to support our present institutions. These 
arguments may not shine in debate but they have great weight 
at the ballot box. 

25 



The causes of the inefficiency of our rural .schools are not 
to be found in the schools themselves but in the social and eco- 
nomic conditions behind them. It is a mistake to think thai 
consolidated schools will solve our rural problems; they might 
even aggravate them. Bad roads, uncertain markets, impossi- 
bility of efficient cooperation, the isolation of families would 
be felt far more with consolidated schools than they are now. 
In other words, consolidation cannot be successful till these 
and such obstacles are removed: it must be the result of im- 
proved rural conditions rather than the cause of them. We 
cannot climb the last rungs of a ladder till we have success- 
fully climbed the lower ones. 

Sweden has what are called "Ambulatory Schools" which 
have proved greatly successful. In sparsely settled communi- 
ties instead of trying to carry the children in all weathers the 
year round to a central school they have several school places 
situated in different parts of the district. The teacher holds 
school for a while in one place and then moves to another. 
In this way the inconvenience is equally divided and all are 
satisfied. Or they may have a regular school at a fixed loca- 
tion with an ambulatory attachment or a sort of extension de- 
partment. On the whole Sweden has one of the most success- 
ful school systems in the world, though most of the country is 
very rough and traveling is much more difficult than in Okla- 
homa. 

The chief troubles complained of in rural schools are due to 
inefficient teachers. Good teachers pre rare because school 
directors do not demand them and are unwilling to pay for 
them. The consolidated school would not change this; noth- 
ing can change it but better supervision and the election of more 
competent directors. Men are often elected directors now not 
because they know anything about education but because they 
don't. They are elected because they will economise, will em- 
ploy cheap teachers, will have cheap, rickety buildings, and 
everything pertaining to the school as poverty stricken as pos- 
sible. If the people elect such men directors in neighborhood 
schools they would do the same in a consolidated district. 

Many people are obsessed by mere bigness. The seeming 
efficiency of such commercial organizations as the Steel Trust 
weaken our confidence in small units. But the large school is 
not always the more efficient school. It is well known that 
schools are far less efficient when too large than when too 
small. In a large class emulation is a stimulus to the brighter 

26 



pupils; but it is equally a discouragement to the duller ones. 
In a large class pupils cannot get individual attention, and the 
timid, backward ones suffer most from this lack. The large 
school is by no means an unmixed good. If the dull pupils are 
stimulated by the bright ones, it is also true that the bright 
ones tend to sink to the level of mediocrity. 

Like everything else, teachers will grow and improve under 
proper conditions. But instead of making this possible we ex- 
pect perfection at $40 a month, and keep changing teachers so 
that growth is impossible. The teacher must put in most of his 
time and effort in getting acquainted with new conditions every 
year. The stream cannot rise higher than its source; no school 
can go in the long run very much beyond its directors. What 
we need is not consolidation but more supervision, better 
management and administration. Without these consolidation 
would do no good; with them consolidation is unnecessary. If 
we must equip our country schools with inexperienced teachers 
then there should be a principal or superintendent in charge of 
three or four schools. 

It seems to be assumed by consolidationists that the graded 
school is the ne plus ultra of educational practice. This is far 
from the case. The faults of the graded system as found in our 
town and <:ity schools are many and grievous. The work of 
each grade is planned for the next grade; the primary school 
exists as a preparation for the grammar school, the grammar 
school for the high school, the high school for the college. 
Even in the .kindergarten the college is the goal; yet less than 
one per cent of the primary grades ever reach the college. We 
are organizing our elementary education for ends which it 
never reaches. The colleges dictate to the high schools, the 
high schools to the grades, and so on down. If this system 
fails in the towns it would fail all the more in the country. 

Much of the agitation for consolidated schools comes from 
the cities. They can think of nothing better for the country 
than the transplanting of the city school into the country. But 
city life in the country is impossible and undesirable, and can 
only result in making the country people more dissatisfied than 
ever with rural life. The city man means well but we must take 
his suggestions with great caution. It is very common for a 
city man who could not raise a pumkin which would compare 
with his own ,head to criticise the farmer for not keeping his 
farrn like a city park. It is common for men who have never 
done a day's work on the farm to think they can teach the farm- 

27 



er how to manage. We must have better arguments for con- 
solidation than the fact that city theorists favor it. 

"The consolidated school will not save expense. Where the 
people are satisfied with the present course of study, which is 
far superior to that which prevailed thirty years ago, under 
consolidation they would want all the new things which they 
are now content to do without. They will want lectures, and 
concerts and all sorts of social gatherings; they will want fine 
school houses, and fine equipments; they will want laboratories, 
and pianos and apparatus without end. In the long run they 
will want as many teachers as we have now and more expen- 
sive ones. Then they will want trees and shrubbery and flow- 
ers. I would not be surprised to see them asking for a tele- 
scope, then keeping the wagons till after dark so the children 
could see the moon through it. Let no one think that consolida- 
tion will diminish expenses." 

In every community there are likes and dislikes, enmities, 
feuds, and the larger the community the more there are. 

" 'Tis true 'tis pity; 
And pity 't is 't is true." 

There is a distressing lack of harmony in many neighbor- 
hoods ,and the larger they are and the more numerous and con- 
flicting the interests the more differences and quarrels and dis- 
putes there would be. We have had several cases of this al- 
ready here in Oklahoma. These are facts which the consolida- 
tionists seem to overlook or ignore, but they are vital; they can- 
not be ignored. There are differences in politics, differences in 
church connection, differences in race, as well as differences in 
temperament, tastes and ideals, and all these things prevent 
harmony and cooperation. 

The life out of doors, the fresher air, the w^holesomer moral 
conditions ought to make country children excel the children 
in the towns. It is a fact that in spite of all the handicaps of 
rural schools they do almost hold their own with city schools, 
and with equal chance they would surpass them. Prof. W. S. 
Smiley of the University of Iowa recently made an extended 
and searching comparison of the results in country and town 
schools and sums up the results as follows: "The results indi- 
cate that the pupils of the one teacher rural schools know more 
about the work covered than do the children from the graded 
schools. The difference is not great, but nevertheless there is 

28 



a positive difference in favor of the rural schools."* A similar 
report comes from Dr. S. A. Courtis of the School of Educa- 
tion of the University of Oklahoma, though he has as yet 
made but little investigation in this line. 

The real trouble lies here. To meet the full demand in teach- 
ing a country school requires a better education and more teach- 
ing ability than is required in town w^here the teacher works 
tinder a superintendent. The rural teacher should know botany 
well enough to explain the structure and uses of every plant 
and flower. He should know the habits and relation to man 
of every bug, every insect, and every animal, and bird. He 
should know about soils, crops, and their culture. He should 
have social talent and skill. He cannot specialize in one or two 
subjects as the town teacher can; he must be able to teach 
everything taught in the common school, and he must know 
enough about them to make them interesting and practical to 
pupils. But who ever heard of a country school offering any 
inducements to a teacher to make such preparation for teach- 
ing. If a teacher made such preparation the average school 
director would reject him for some one whose "looks" he liked 
better. 

The need in the country is not the abandonment of the 
country school but its improvement. Many plans have been 
successful elsewhere which have not been tried here; the con- 
solidated school is not the only alternative to our present sys- 
tem. 

A. It is easier to move the teachers than the children. A 
superintendent can visit three or four schools a day and give 
an hour or more to each, supplementing the inexperience of 
the local teacher, teaching some of the more difficult classes, at- 
tending to the classification, the discipline, and the general 
management. No town or city thinks of trying to get along 
without a superintendent, but he is needed even worse in the 
country than in the town. 

B. The Union Graded System leaves the smaller children 
in the present neighborhood school till they have completed 
the fifth grade. Above that grade there are comparatively few 
pupils; they form most of the classes, but are old enough to 
ride or drive, and so may attend a central school without the 
wagon nuisance. It is only the older pupils who can utilize a 



*It should be noted that the children in the country were about 
three years older than town children of equal advancement. 

29 



central school or profit by it. This plan secures all the ad- 
vantages of the consolidated school while avoiding its disad- 
vantages. 

It must be conceded by all that the rural school situation is 
extremely unsatisfactory. The drift of population to the towns 
and cities is one of the most distressing facts of our times. One 
of its causes, and possibly one of its chief causes is the lack of 
educational advantages in the country as compared with the 
towns. Because the negative oppose consolidation does not 
mean that they are satisfied with present conditions. They 
simply do not wish to jump out of the frying pan into the firer 
that is all. The negative recognize all the existing evils and de- 
plore them as much as the affirmative. But the negative claim 
that there are too many far more promising remedies for pres- 
ent ills than consolidation which have not yet been tried here^ 
though they have been successful where they have been tried. 
Among them are: The Union Graded School which establishes 
a central school for only the higher grades; the Ambulatory 
School which moves the school instead of the pupils, and which 
has been so successful in Sweden; the Group System by which 
several schools are grouped together under one competent su- 
perintendent who directs the inexperienced teacher, assists in 
discipline, and solves the chief school problems; the County Sys- 
tem used in most of the Southern states now, which places all 
the schools under a central county board. Where this is com- 
posed of real educators it eliminates the control of the school' 
by incompetent school directors and secures enlightened, com- 
petent, progressive management, and in the long run saves a 
great deal of the expense, or else gives a great deal more for 
the rate of expense which now prevails. 

Tn one county in Oklahoma an attempt was made to or- 
ganize a consolidated school for a whole township. There were 
six schools in the township, and a meeting was called for the 
purpose of considering the proposition but a majority of the 
voters did not come. The minorit}'- present voted by a small 
majority to establish a consolidated school for the township. 
At first there was no organized effort to prevent it, but when- 
a meeting was called to vote bonds for the purpose dissension 
arose. Some wanted a building patterned after a neighboring 
high school. Some wished a high school building with audi- 
torium and stage facilities. Some wished to move the old 
school buildings together for the joint school. Neither party 
was willing to vote bonds except for its own plan and neither 

30 



could command a majority, and the bond issue was voted down. 
A second meeting was called and the bond proposition was 
overwhelmingly defeated, and a long and costly litigation re- 
sulted. The trial court held that school could not be held in the 
separate school houses, and since there was no provision for 
the support of a united school they had none at all in all the 
six districts, and the expense of the suit was added to the al- 
ready heavy tax burdens of the township. Life-long friends 
became bitter enemies, the country church was split into war- 
ring factions and services were discontinued. A generation will 
be required to eliminate the evil effects of this attempt at con- 
solidation. 

Often when consolidation succeeds there are left in its train 
controversies, rivalries, and dissatisfactions which neutralize 
all the good which could possibly result from it. Consolidation 
is futile and useless unless a spirit of cooperation has previously 
been worked up. To ignore such facts as these in urging con- 
solidation is foolish and almost criminal. Where physical and 
social conditions are unfavorable consolidation is by no means 
:advisable. Where there are diverse and discordant elements 
in a community it is useless to talk of consolidation. Where 
Toads are bad, where bridges are lacking the transportation of 
pupils in all weathers is simply impossible. 



A CHAPTER FROM ACTUAL EXPERIENCE. 
By a former resident in a consolidated district. 

1. Children were confined in wagons for long periods of 
time, which was detrimental to health. Those who were picked 
Tip first were often taken on as early as 7 a. m. and hauled for 
two hours; and the same length of time was consumed at night. 
This required the children to be gotten up earlier in midwinter 
than was desirable, and kept them on the road four hours a day. 

2. Wagons were often unsanitary. The heating was neces- 
sarily irregular and resulted in colds. The children from some 
liomes were unclean in clothing and person, and made the air in 
the closed wagon foul; and sometimes skin diseases and ver- 
min were communicated to other children who were compelled 
to sit next during the long rides. 

3. The drivers were not skillful in managing the children, 
consequently misbehavior was frequent and dissatisfaction re- 
sulted. Further, the moral condition was undesirable; since the 
children were closely seated in the closed wagon more or less 



31 



dark, whispered conversation and suggestive movements were 
often undetected by the driver. 

4. The consolidated school often had too many pupils for 
each teacher and the individual child received less attention than 
in the rural school. While individual teaching is being recogniz- 
ed as being more and more essential, even at best the gain in 
attention given to the individual child was little if any. On the 
whole there was a distinct loss in individual instruction. 

5. In the single rural school the lack of close grading per- 
mitted each individual child to advance as fast as he was capable 
of doing; so that the bright, studious children were not held 
back ,and the dull and backward child received more attention 
than in the consolidated school. 

6. Lack of class incentive .was more than compensated for by 
the increase in teacher incentive gained by closer personal con- 
tact of teacher and pupil in the smaller school, which was less 
mechanical, permitted more freedom, and consequently secured 
better development of personality. 

7. Removal of the small community destroys the community 
interest and removes the child further from the home. Teacher 
and parent come into less contact with consequent loss of mu- 
tual understanding and cooperation. Those remote from the 
central school were more isolated than ever; what was gained 
by those who lived close was lost by those who lived farther 
away. 

8. Children, during this age, should learn something else 
besides books; that is, they should have a definite part in the 
work of the home for which they are held personally responsi- 
ble. The chores not only need the children, but children need 
the chores and the experience and contact with nature which 
this work gives. The long time spent on the road prevents 
this; most of the children leave home too early and get home* 
too late. 



32 



I 



The University Bulletin has been established by the university. 
The reasons that have led to such a step are: first, to provide a means 
to set before the people of Oklahoma, from time to time, information 
about the work of the different departments of the university: and, 
second, to provide a way for the publishing of departmental reports 
papers, theses, and such other matter as the university believes 
would be helpful to the cause of education in our state. The Bulletin 
will be sent post free to all who apply for it. The university desires 
especially to exchange with other schools and colleges for similar 
publications. 

Communications should be addressed: 

THE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN 
, University Hall, 

Norman, Oklahoma. 



Oklahoma University Press. 



